Engnews January 2017

engnews@rfanews.org

1 participants
2 discussions

RFA Breaking News: Interviews: One in Three Rohingya Women Refugees Say They Were Raped

by Paul Eckert

Interviews: One in Three Rohingya Women Refugees Say They Were Raped Jan. 19, 2017 - One in three women interviewed by BenarNews this week in Bangladesh’s refugee camps for Rohingya Muslims who fled violence in Myanmar claimed they were raped by security forces before their escape. A BenarNews correspondent, who spent four days visiting the camps in southeastern Cox’s Bazar district, reported that 17 of the 54 Rohingya women she interviewed said they were raped while Myanmar’s military launched a brutal crackdown in northern Rakhine state after nine police officers were attacked and killed by an armed Rohingya insurgent group in October. Numerous reports of rape and other atrocities had emerged since the post-attack crackdown, which led to some 65,000 Rohingya entering Bangladesh, but this is the first time that numbers were cited based on random surveys of the extent of sexual assaults on women. Refugees who spoke to BenarNews also described a wide range of other abuses, including torching of their homes and animals, beatings, and killings of loved ones. The perpetrators, often operating at night, were members of the military or the Nadala, a uniformed paramilitary force, they said. Setara Begum, 24, a refugee in Kutupalong camp, said security forces snatched her one night as she was eating dinner in Naisapro village, in Maungdaw district, and took her to some nearby hills where she and some other local women were “tortured by turns.” “Failing to bear the barbaric torture, two women died there. I somehow managed to flee after being raped,” she told BenarNews. “They stripped me, beat my breasts and body; then they did whatever they desired,” she said. Her husband rescued her hours later. By that time, the security forces had burned their home, according to Begum. They hid in the hills for several days. “I could not eat rice for 10 days; my three children survived eating leaves. Coming to Bangladesh, they can eat here,” said Begum, who crossed the border in a boat (?) on Jan. 13. ‘Crude denial games’ Myanmar has come under international fire over the alleged mistreatment of the ethnic minority. On Thursday, representatives of 57 Muslim nations held an extraordinary meeting in Kuala Lumpur to focus on the humanitarian crisis gripping the Rohingya Muslim community. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak warned that Islamic extremists could use the plight of the Rohingya, who are considered illegal immigrants from Bangladesh by Myanmar’s Buddhist-majority population, as a way to radicalize the minority group, which is denied basic rights. A commission appointed by the government of Myanmar has rejected accusations that its military was committing genocide in Rakhine villages, which have been closed to Western journalists and human rights investigators. But earlier this month, in a rare official acknowledgment of the security forces’ abuses, several police officers were detained over a video that appeared to show policemen beating Rohingya during a security operation. The U.N. human rights envoy to Myanmar Yanghee Lee met privately in Naypyidaw Wednesday with de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi to discuss the violence in Rakhine state and reports of security forces committing the atrocities. “Aung San Suu Kyi and her government apparently lack the political will to confront its security forces about their actions,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of U.S.-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), calling for an independent, international investigation of the allegations of rights abuses in Rakhine. HRW’s own investigations have uncovered that numerous women have suffered rape and sexual violence at the hands of the security forces, “yet the government continues its crude denial games rather than seriously investigating these grave rights abuses,” Robertson told BenarNews. The 17 women who were said they were raped ranged in age from 16 to 31. They gave their full names to BenarNews. ‘They pushed me with guns’ Nur Jahan, 31, another refugee who spoke to BenarNews, said she was raped three weeks after soldiers took her husband from their home. He remains missing. “On December 14 last year, two [military personnel] tightly caught me and the other raped me; thus all of the three violated me inside my room. I got unconscious; I do not know whether more people raped me,” said Jahan, from Naisapro Noarbil village in Maungdaw. She said she reported her ordeal to a local leader when he visited the village; after he left, the military encircled her house. She went into hiding and fled to Bangladesh, where she said she received medical treatment. “My body got swollen due to their torture. I was admitted to the hospital as I could not bear the pain,” she said. Senoara Begum, 19, living in the Leda refugee camp, said she was heavily pregnant when she was raped. She cradled her baby, born after she arrived in Bangladesh, as she spoke. “They pushed me with guns. I was pregnant for eight months at the time but they did not spare me, and bit my cheek,” she said. A human bite mark was visible on the left side of her face. “They held [my husband] and took him away. Then they took me away to a room and raped me,” she said. Many rape victims: UN worker Officials and workers at non-governmental organization said it was difficult to track large numbers of new arrivals at the camps, but confirmed large numbers of rape reports. “Generally it is true that raped women are coming every day. A lot of the raped women also don’t disclose rape issues, because of shame. But I can say the number of rapes is really huge,” Tayeb Ali, leader of the Kutupalong unregistered Rohingya camp, told BenarNews. “Every day, new Rohingya are taking shelters in almost each of the houses of this unregistered Rohingya camp. Out of them, the number of raped women is huge. Along with old Rohingya, we are providing primary treatment to new Rohingya too,” said Samira Akter, with the medical NGO Bangladesh German Shompreeti (BGS) at Leda camp. Prior to the influx of Rohingya following the recent violence, about 35,000 refugees lived in two UN-registered refugee camps and 300,000 more in vast unregistered settlements immediately adjacent, where homes are constructed of bamboo and plastic and roughly 5,000 people have access to a single water source and latrine, as witnessed by a BenarNews correspondent. “The number of new Rohingya only in this camp is more than thirty thousand. Out of them, a lot of women are rape victims. The nature of the torture on them is very cruel,” a worker with the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) in Noyapara Rohingya Camp told BenarNews on condition of anonymity. “There are also incidents of abortions and miscarriages due to the rape of pregnant women.” Reported by Jesmin Papri from Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, for BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service. View this s tory online at: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/myanmar/rohingya-bangladesh-01192017181052.… Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news , information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. RFA ’s broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to “seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” RFA is funded by an annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors. If you no longer wish to receive RFA news releases, send an e-mail to engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org . To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org . ##### All media inquiries may be sent to Rohit Mahajan at mahajanr(a)rfa.org .

7 years, 7 months

Breaking News: North Korean Security Conscript in Custody after Shooting 7 Colleagues Dead

by Paul Eckert

North Korean Security Conscript in Custody after Shooting 7 Colleagues Dead Jan. 18 - A young North Korean man conscripted to guard a customs post on his country's border with China in under arrest for shooting dead seven platoon members who had angered him with bullying treatment, RFA’s Korean Service has learned. After the shootings at dawn on Jan. 7 at Hyesan, a city in North Korea’s northern Yanggang province, the young conscript was arrested and taken to Pyongyang, sources familiar with the shooting told RFA. “The suspect and one platoon member who survived the shooting were transported to State Security headquarters in Pyongyang. There is no way to find out the exact cause of this incident, since the Yanggang authorities are trying to keep everyone’s mouth shut,” one source said on Jan. 14. A second source, however, said the shooter apparently snapped after suffering bullying from his colleagues. “The incident at the Hyesan customs office was caused by the frequent beatings suffered by the new conscripts at the hands of their superiors, and the one who committed the crime is a new conscript who graduated from high school last spring,” the source told RFA on Jan. 16. North Korean authorities are trying to prevent the information from spreading to other parts of the country, the sources said.The names of the shooter and victims are not known. No other information was immediately available about the shooting in Hyesan, a provincial administrative center of nearly 200,000 people that lies on the Yalu River, which forms North Korea’s border with China. Reported by Sunghui Moon for RFA’s Korean Service. Translated by Max Kwak. Written in English by Paul Eckert. View this s tory online at: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/customs-shooting-01182017170332.html Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news , information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. RFA ’s broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to “seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” RFA is funded by an annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors. If you no longer wish to receive RFA news releases, send an e-mail to engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org . To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org . ##### All media inquiries may be sent to Rohit Mahajan at mahajanr(a)rfa.org .

7 years, 7 months

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

Engnews January 2017